Jeep Once Built A Sports Car Named After A Famous Racing Circuit

Everyone wants to do everything nowadays. In the 1990s, the idea of Porsche making an SUV sounded absurd, and then the Cayennebecame one of the brand's most iconic nameplates. Kia, once regarded as strictly a budget brand for cash-strapped college kids, now builds a ladder-frame pickup truck, and the Ford Mustang can be bought as an electric crossover.

Jeep's consistent focus on SUVs and pickups makes them an outlier in an industry where nobody wants to leave a segment uncovered. They're pretty content with their corner of the market, and they don't show much interest in branching out. But, that wasn't always the case. Once upon a time, back when the Jeep brand went by "Willys-Overland Motors," it actually tried its hand at marketing a sports car in South America. And it wasn't even Willys-Overland's only attempt at building a car outside the off-road niche.

Here's what you need to know about one of Jeep's weirder experiments.

Meet The Willys Interlagos

Let's start off with a look at the specs. The Interlagos (named for a So Paulo racetrack) was available in coupe, convertible, and berlinetta models. The coupe and convertible were available with the 845cc and 904cc engines, while the sport-tuned 998cc was exclusive to the berlinetta.

Willys Interlagos Performance Specs
Engine	0.8-Liter 4-Cylinder	0.9-Liter 4-Cylinder	1-Liter 4-Cylinder
Power	37 hp	53 hp	70 hp
Transmission	4-Speed Manual
Drivetrain	Rear-engine, RWD
Curb Weight	1,179 lbs

If these numbers look familiar to European gearheads, that's because the car was quite literally an Alpine A108. The 1966 Interlagos packed the same Renault engine lineup as the French fiberglass two-door, it used the same body designs and interior fittings, and it performed just like an Alpine A108, because it was an Alpine A108 in everything but name and automaker.

Jeep's Best Off-Roaders Of All Time

The seven-slot grille has adorned some off-road legends over the years.

In case you're wondering, yes, the Interlagos performed on its namesake track, and it did alright. A pair of these cars competed in the 1,000 Miles of Brazil endurance race at Interlagos in 1967, finishing in 21st and 22nd place

Why Was Willys Making French Cars In South America?

The lineage of the Jeep brand is kind of confusing. Willys-Overland secured a government contract to produce the "Army Truck" for the American military during World War II, a big boon to the company, and then rolled that success into the CJ, or Civilian Jeep models in the post-war era. Then, in 1953, Willys-Overland was bought by Kaiser Motors, and moved to Brazil in hopes of expanding their market in order to offset meager sales back in the US.

The plan was to build cars in Brazil and sell them in the United States, but that never happened. Instead, Willys wound up building French race cars in South America under a North American name.

Add CarBuzz to your Google News feed.

Follow On

Google News

In 1963, the Willys-Overland name would disappear from the US market entirely, with their products being marketed under the Kaiser-Jeep brand. So the Interlagos, being produced from 1962 to 1966, was Willys-Overland's main representation in the global automotive industry around that time.

In total, Willys-Overland is said to have produced 822 of these cars, with about one in three estimated to still be intact.

Third Win For Jeep Team At Grueling Rebelle Rally

Nena Barlow and Teralin Peterit have just won the Rebelle Rally for the third time, the first in a Jeep Gladiator Mojave.

Other Attempts At A Jeep Car

The Jeep that we know and love today is the Jeep that's remained pretty well focused on the SUV and pickup segments. Willys-Overland was another story. The company had long periods of struggling to find their footing, so, from the 1930s to the 1960s, you can find several instances of Willys trying to break into the coupe and sedan market. Here are some of the more notable examples.

Willys Americar

They absolutely need to bring this nameplate back. How can you have a name like Americarand just sit on it? The Americar was available as a sedan, coupe, station wagon, or pickup, launching in 1937 with a 2.2-lter 60-horse Go-Devil inline-four engine. With the last one rolling off the assembly line in 1942, this would be the final civilian model from Willys-Overland until the Willys Aero a decade later.

Willys Aero

The Willys Aero was produced by Willys-Overland and Kaiser-Willys in the early 1950s, and then by Willys-Overland in Brazil through the 1960s. This was, first, a line of two and four-door compact sedans, then a four-door sedan or limo in the Brazilian years. The So Paulo models were powered by a 2.6-liter Hurricane inline-six, and were kept in production from 1960 to 1971.

Willys Jeepster

You remember that Jeepstersong by T. Rex? It was about an actual car! The Jeepster was produced from 1948 to 1950, and was the only car on this list to really bear that iconic, boxy Jeep look. The Jeepster was sort of a predecessor to modern crossovers, marketed as having a "dual personality for city and country driving." As the name suggests, the car looked and drove like a Jeep/roadster lovechild, running a base 2.2-liter inline-four engine rated at 63 hp, and paired to a 3-speed manual transmission.

Jeepster Returns As Special-Edition Jeep Renegade

It hasn't been used for a Jeep model since the late '90s.

Could A Jeep Car Succeed Today?

Stranger things have happened, but a better question might be: would Jeep have any reason to bother making a sedan or a coupe in 2024?

Looking back at the history of the passenger vehicle over the last hundred years or so, it looks like Jeep has already won the automotive culture war. Immediately following the Second World War, we didn't even have a word for the Civilian Jeep, we called it a truck, because the term SUV wouldn't be invented until sometime in the 1970s to categorize the Jeep Cherokee SJ. Willys-Overland kept trying to develop a car for the mass market because, sixty, seventy years ago, that seemed like the only way to expand their market presence outside a single model that appealed to a very small niche of drivers.

We Bet You Never Knew About The Flying Willys Jeep From World War II

One part Willys Jeep, one part helicopter, all awesome.

Take a look out the nearest window right now, and what do you see in the parking lot? Nothing but SUVs, crossovers, and pickups, the types of vehicles in which Jeep has always specialized. Look at the top ten sellers for 2023. You've got the F-Series at the top, then the Silverado, the RAV4, the CR-V, the Ram Pickup and, finally, in sixth place, our first car in the Toyota Camry, selling just shy of a quarter million units.

Jeep even poked some fun at the idea of building a car back in 2019, announcing a new sedan for April Fool's Day, basically insinuating that they found the idea to be patently ridiculous.

Would we love to see something like a WRX-inspired WranglerRally, or a luxury-oriented Cherokee sedan? Sure, why not? But it seems like an odd idea to go chasing after a dwindling segment of the market when you've just spent seventy years watching your own product grow from niche to mainstream.